


Maybe We Belong Here

by neonmoonlight



Category: One Direction (Band), Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Aliens, Cecilos family dinners, I love this fic so much, Intern Harry, M/M, PJ is an Alien, Scientist Louis, Typical Night Vale Weirdness, all hail the glow cloud, along with the typical characters, bc it works, harry has a bunch of goats, harry knits, theres the Cactus People mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-05-03 04:11:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5276030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neonmoonlight/pseuds/neonmoonlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry was used to the Night Vale weirdness, having lived there his whole life and what not. He knew the ins and outs and what he could do, what he couldn't, where he needed to go at least once a week and what his designated day was for Screaming out of Fear of the Void. So when he met Louis and a laugh track started up in his head, he wasn't concerned.</p><p>Louis however, wasn't used to the weirdness of Night Vale. He somewhat knew what day he was supposed to be Screaming and he knew for sure what things were banned and what things were okay, but other than that he was lost. So when he meets Harry and the laugh track starts up, he's extremely concerned.</p><p>Or the fic where Louis is one of Carlos's scientist, Harry is the longest living Intern at NVCR under Cecil and the City Council, Mayor Cardinal and the Lights above Arby's have a funny way of getting people together ft Cecilos family dinners.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maybe We Belong Here

**Author's Note:**

  * For [idkspookystuff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/idkspookystuff/gifts).



> So this was my prompt: Harry's lived in Nightvale his whole life, and is even to Intern to Cecil Palmer at Nightvale Community Radio. He's never known anything besides Nightvale, until Cecil's boyfriend from outside brings one of his friends: a scientist named Louis.  
> (Welcome to Nightvale AU; kind of like a rom com feel)
> 
> I tried my best to keep it as close as I could to the actual prompt but I wasn't sure exactly how they should get together so I left the end kind of open to interpretation. And of course when I saw rom com feel my first thought was a television show that was live with laugh track and everything. I hope you like the fic though!
> 
> Shoutout to my awesome beta flamingstuffs for helping me with this and allowing small rants about it, and for also inviting me to a kickass halloween party. :*

It’s safe to say that Harry is used to the strange goings on in Night Vale. He also knows that he is the longest living Intern at Night Vale Community Radio and seems to be immune to the weird goings on that seem to kill the previous Interns. This makes Harry extremely valuable to Cecil, which is why Cecil sent him to investigate the strange craft that landed in the Sand Wastes, near where Telly the Cacti Barber wanders. It seemed to be nothing more than the Cactus People coming in from a different desert to get their hair trimmed (as it turns out, Telly is famous among cacti because he gives good haircuts). Walking back to the station, Harry had his headphones in listening to a playlist he had Cecil make for him of all of his favorite Weathers so Harry could listen to them when he was bored or working on clearing out the archives. 

Humming to himself, he didn’t notice the honking car horn behind him, and only realized that he was being summoned until the car pulled up next to him and Carlos was waving at Harry through the open window. In the typical Night Vale way, Harry got into the car without question. Pulling out his headphones, he texted Cecil saying that he’s getting a ride back to the station and should be there soon. Carlos hummed along with a song that only he seemed to be able to hear. It’s been a few weeks since he’s been home and Cecil is beyond ecstatic. You can tell by how he talks on air. Harry was glad that Carlos was back, he missed the dinners that he was invited to with the three of them.

“So, what were you doing out in the Sand Wastes Harry?” Looking up at Carlos, Harry just shrugged and smiled his Radio Smile™. 

“Just normal intern duties you know, investigating the strange ship that landed. Turned out to just be the Cactus People in for their annual hair cut. They upgraded their ships, they’re all nice now, with touchscreens and everything.” Carlos nodded and turned left, pulling up in front of the radio station. Harry grabbed his messenger bag and stepped out.

“You coming in, Carlos? There’s a parking spot nearby that won’t swallow your car.” Carlos laughed and shook his head at Harry, waving him off. 

“Nah, I have to go do some Science. Louis sent me a text saying that something happened to a row of beakers and needs my help.” Harry nodded and shut the door before going up to the Bloodstone door and pressing his hand into the Blood Offering niche next to the door to enter. Waving at the sentient statue manning the front desk, he made his way up to the Intern breakroom. Cecil had just put on the Weather so Harry grabbed himself one of the poison free doughnuts and went into the control booth. Waving at Cecil through the glass, he pointed at his notes and walked into the radio booth. Cecil looked up at Harry and kicked the spare chair over to him.

“So, what’s the deal with the ship out in the Sand Wastes?” Harry slid the file over to his boss and leaned back, looking around the radio booth. He isn’t allowed in as often as he probably should be, seeing as he’s the main Intern of Cecil’s. Humming along to the Weather, Harry leaned back and relaxed until Cecil shooed him out. Feeling slightly put out, he put his headphones in and went back to Cecil's office to sort out some papers. Mind numbing work was Harry's specialty.

☾

Louis wasn't sure what happened to the beakers, but one second he was inputting data and the next second he heard this loud 'pop' and when he turned around there was one large hedgehog and three smaller hedgehogs, the smaller ones were climbing all over the bigger one who looked fairly bored. Sighing, Louis put in the last of the data and then scooped up the hedgehogs and sat down on a clean patch of floor before shooting a text to Carlos. The head scientist of their ragtag group had to go out to get something for his boyfriend who is the Voice of this town. 

When Carlos came in, carrying a brown paper bag, he took one look at Louis and the hedgehogs and started laughing. Louis held the hedgehogs in his arms and pouted up at Carlos. Giggling, Carlos put his bag down and checked the data of one of his daily experiments before saving and closing down the program and sitting in one of the rolly chair. 

“So, how did this happen?” Louis just shrugged and held his new pets close.

“No idea. How does anything happen in this town? Do you have a cage big enough for these guys?” Carlos shrugged and made a sweeping gesture at his Lab. Indicating that Louis gets up himself and finds something. Huffing to himself, Louis grabbed the nearest clean industrial bucket and carefully put the hedgehogs in it before getting up and sitting himself in his rolly chair. Slumping down, he watched the smaller hedgehogs climb all over the big hedgehog, smiling to himself.

“So, Louis. Would you like to join Cecil, Harry, Janice and I for dinner?” That caught Louis off guard. He was used to eating some takeout while watching approved shows after he got home from working at the lab. Though a homemade dinner would probably break the monotony of his life recently. So he shrugged and agreed. Louis glanced down at his new pets and scooped up the bucket, standing up. 

“Can you give me a ride to the pet store first?” Smiling a bit fondly, Carlos rubbed Louis hair and nodded. Scooping up his bag again, he called out to Jacob to close up when he was done. 

☾

Harry was told that he could invite one guest to the weekly Cecilos Family Dinner, so he decided to bring his roommate (who is apparently an Alien on a foreign exchange program to Earth), PJ because he was curious about how the Family Dinners worked, so when he found out that Harry could bring a guest, he jumped on Harry to bring him. Which leads to now, with Harry sitting next to Janice, watching PJ like a hawk as he walked around the room, touching various knick knacks that Cecil has in the dining room. Cecil then came in, and pulled PJ into the kitchen to interview him and let Harry relax. Sitting back in his chair, Harry turned to Janice to make small talk about the heist that was pulled off recently and the fact that their seems to be more cases of normal everyday objects turning into animals. Which is when Carlos decided to walk in, with a few of his scientists. Harry was immediately drawn to the shortest one carrying a bucket that seemed to have squeaking contents. The boy was wearing a snapback hat, so Harry wasn’t all that certain of what his hair was, but he could tell by the tufts of hair poking out that some of it was a deep blue and other parts were purple. Looking over him, Harry thought to himself that he was the cutest human being he has ever seen, and he has a baby cousin. The boy sat down directly across from Harry and shot him a tired smile, before looking down into the bucket that he had with him. Harry wasn’t able to get lost in his thoughts as much as he wanted to because that was when PJ came bounding out of the kitchen, bottom of his shirt on fire and a big smile on his face. Sighing loudly, Harry pulled the alien down into the chair next to him and put out the fire on his shirt. Cecil and Carlos then walked in, carrying plates heaped high with food. When the plates were set and everyone gave praise to the Beams and the Glow Cloud (all hail), they dug in.

“So Harry, how’s the knitting coming along?” Harry shrugged in response, swallowing his food before answering. 

“It’s good. Still adding to the one scarf once a thing of yarn is too low to use for anything else. I made you a hat actually Carlos, I just have to find it. One of my goats may have eaten it, I’m not entirely sure.”

“Was it bright green and wiggly?” PJ asked Harry with his mouth full despite the amount of times that Harry told him was bad manners. Turning to look at PJ, Harry’s eyebrows rose slightly.

“Yes… why?” PJ shrugged and stuffed more food in his mouth

“Honnah ate it I think. No wait, I know that he ate it because he took it out of your basket and started chewing on it. Then the other two came up and started fighting him. It was kinda adorable really.” Sighing loudly, Harry almost face planted into the curry that Cecil made for dinner. Distantly, he heard a bunch of people laughing and was confused. Looking around, he saw that the only other person who seemed a bit confused was the boy sitting across from him. They caught each other's gaze and the laughter started to die down. Normally, Harry would ignore the weird things he hears, but this time it seems different. Shaking his head, Harry went back to eating and kept PJ from ingesting the table cloth. Eventually, Harry pushed him into the chair, told him to stay and then got up to bring his dishes into the kitchen. 

Louis looked up when PJ started making a high pitch whining noise and pouting at the door to the kitchen. He saw Janice turn to talk to him so Louis took that as his opportunity to escape into the kitchen. There was a loud applause in his head when he walked in and saw the boy who sat across from him earlier. Wincing slightly he saw the boy press his soapy hands against his ears. That caused the applause to be replaced with laughter which quickly died down. Biting his tongue, Louis walked up to the boy and set his plate in the sink. The taller boy turned to face him, startled and sprayed him with water on accident.

“Oops.” 

“Hi. I’m Louis, I don’t think we were introduced?” Shaking his head, the boy dried his hands on the hand towel hanging off the hook next to the light. 

“I’m Harry, the longest living Radio Intern here.” Louis grabbed the towel and dabbed at his shirt, humming slightly. Looking up, he saw that Harry went back to doing his dishes but kept sneaking glances at Louis. Clearing off a small bit of counter, Louis hopped up and tucked his hands under his thighs. Humming to himself, Louis gently kicked his legs against the cabinet and watched as Harry ran the dishes. The silence that filled the room was a companionable silence and not awkward. It only became awkward when PJ bounded into the room, part of a cloth napkin hanging out of one corner of his mouth. Harry turned around and sighed loudly. Louis tilted his head slightly, looking PJ over (Carlos at least told him who PJ was, and he’s seen him around the lab before).

“He’s an alien right?” Harry shrugged and pulled PJ over to the sink to help him wash the dishes.

“That depends on your definition of alien.” 

“If you mean someone who is not from your small planet, then yes. I am an alien but I am more than that.” PJ gave Louis a cold stare for a second before smiling widely. Louis shook his head again and stuck one of his hands out for a shake.

“I’m Louis, you must be PJ. I’ve seen you around the Lab™.” Louis heard one loud laugh inside his head and going by the way that Harry flinched, he did as well. PJ seemed oblivious and started to chew on a clean fork. Groaning, Harry hit his head against one of the cabinets (prompting laughter) before grabbing PJ by the shoulders and pushing him out to the dining room, telling him to talk to Cecil. Once he was out of the kitchen, Harry gave Louis a sheepish smile and went back to cleaning up the dishes. 

“So, how do you know PJ?” Putting his dishes on the drying rack, Harry leaned against the counter and turned to face him.

“He was my assigned roommate. City Council decided I would be the best choice since I have survived the Radio Internship the longest. Besides Mayor Cardinal of course.” Louis nodded slightly and opened his mouth to say something when Carlos walked in holding his bucket of hedgehogs. Pouting slightly, Louis slid off the counter and grabbed the bucket gently.

“They were making this high pitched noise, I think they missed you.” Louis nodded and looked down into the bucket, smiling to himself when he saw them all squeaking excitedly. Humming slightly, he set the bucket onto the counter before hopping up to sit next to it. He looked over at Harry and gave him a smile. Out of nowhere there was a loud scream and banging sound, causing Louis to jump violently, grabbing at his ears. Faintly he heard the sound of a plate breaking. Huffing loudly, Louis curled his legs up and looked around violently for the source of the sound, before realizing that it seemed to come from within his own head. Harry didn’t seem to have noticed, so he only figured it was a normal thing but he decided to ask anyways. 

“Did you just hear a loud scream?” 

“Yeah, but that’s just the Vague, Yet Menacing Government Agency testing to see if they can still get in your mind. They do it once a week and if you hear it then it means that they have access to your mind now. No biggie really.” Louis blinked at him slowly before shaking his head and remembering that Harry lived here his whole life so really there is no point in questioning the things he stats as fact (like the fact that the Dog Park is forbidden along with normal writing utensils.). Sighing softly, he picked up his bucket of hedgehogs, gave Harry a small wave and went out into the living room to ask Carlos for a ride home. 

☾

The next day found Louis in the lab, trying to figure out why he kept hearing the laugh track. Scratching out the list of things he wrote down, he crumpled up the paper and tossed it towards the ever growing pile of crumpled up papers in the trash bin. The trash bin seemed very happy because it was getting more paper than usual. Sighing loudly, he ran his hands through his hair, musing his hair up into messy spikes . Dragging his hands down his face, he scowled as he heard the laugh track again. Huffing loudly, he tossed the clipboard down and got up to find Carlos in the maze of the underground mess of rooms. Of course, he found him in the one that resembled the desert otherworld (at least, that’s what he told Louis). Walking up next to him, Louis stood right next to him and looked into all the paintings. 

“I don’t know what to do about the laugh track, Cecil probably does.” Nodding slightly, Louis decided to just stand and watch the paintings with his boss. Apparently, the paintings show each person the one other person they want to see the most, which for some reason seemed to switch between Harry and Louis’ family. Chewing on his lip, he kept himself from trying to touch the painting showing his sisters playing in the snow of the backyard of their house up in Maine. Sighing loudly, he patted Carlos’s shoulder and turned back around, leaving the room to head to the radio station. 

☾

Wrapping up his hand with the tissue the sentient statue handed him at the front desk, Louis made his way up to the Archives where Harry was according to one of the lesser Interns who was sitting in the waiting area out front, holding a stained cloth to their head. The program right before Cecil’s was on and playing throughout the station, sounding like the archival recording of Bee’s that Michelle showed him once when he wandered into Dark Owl Records during his lunch break. Humming to himself, he looked into a door next to what looked like the Intern Break Room and saw Harry carefully sorting cassette tapes, some of them with weird stains on the sides. Harry looked occupied in his work, moving his head along to music that Louis was too far away to hear. Walking into the room, Louis tapped Harry on the shoulder, causing him to jump slightly (laughter) and whirl around. When he saw Louis, his face opened up into a wide smile and pulled out his earbuds.

“Hi Louis, what are you doing here?” (cue cheesy sitcom music) Rubbing at his head with his free hand, Louis gestured towards it. 

“I was wondering if you knew what was up with this, since you’ve lived here longer than I have.” Harry simply gave a shrug (more laughter) and went to put the cassette tapes away, apparently deciding that this portion of work is over. Turning back to Louis, he gave him a smile.

Giving Louis a small shrug, he then beckoned him to follow him to the radio booth. Checking his hand, he chucked the bloody tissue into the closet trash can and followed Harry along the winding hallways to Cecil’s booth. He heard a slight giggle behind him and figured that the trash can was used to it. When they walked past Station Management’s door, Harry ducked his head and hurried past it. Feeling like that was protocol, Louis did the same, keeping his mind on a safe topic (Science) and not a forbidden topic. Feeling like he was safe once they walked past the Door, he dropped his thoughts on Science and focused on the boy in front of him as he weaved his way through a lot of boxes that were strewn about in the hallway (Girl Scout Cookies maybe?). Waving him forward, Harry led Louis into the room next to the booth, pulling a chair up for him. Smiling softly, Louis smiled and took a seat in the chair and watched Harry go about doing something with the soundboard in the booth. 

Cecil came in and gave Harry a pat on the head before trying to push him out of the booth. However he stopped once he heard what Harry had to say. Louis watched as Harry turned so his back was to Louis and how Cecil’s eyebrows went up and his tattoos started glowing a bright purple. He then proceeded to pat Harry on the head, tell him something and kick him out of the booth. Harry of course tripped and fell, landing at Louis feet prompting a storm of laughter. Louis looked up to where he knew one of the ‘hidden’ cameras were and stared into it, which made the laughter rise up and get louder. Sighing, he helped Harry get back up onto his feet and onto the desk.

“Cecil is going to interview you.” It wouldn’t be the first time, but Louis fails to see how it’s relevant to the problem. Sighing, Louis just nodded and put his head on Harry’s knee, closing his eyes. Harry just hummed quietly (probably a Weather track he loves) and ran his fingers through Louis hair. A loud ‘aww’ was heard inside Louis head which caused him to whine loudly and cover up his ears. Really, the faster this thing was solved the better. Just as he was falling asleep, Louis was shook awake by Harry and handed a coffee by one of the other Long Lasting Interns (who works in Records, which is less dangerous than being an Intern intern). Smiling at them, Louis drained the coffee quickly and was pushed into the booth, and sat down by an Extremely Helpful (and slightly stressed) Harry. Rubbing his hands together, he turned to Cecil as he was wrapping up the news segment. 

☾

Apparently, the problem Louis and Harry were facing was something common and happened at least twice a year in their town. At least that’s what the people who called in said. Despite that it was still annoying that Louis didn’t get much of a say in who he had to date. He did think that Harry was a cute person overall and was probably worth the fuss but it seemed like the City Council, Mayor Cardinal and the Lights seemed to be trying to create another Cecilos but on a minor scale since neither of them are at all at the Prestigious level that Cecil and Carlos are at. Well, if fate wanted it, then it’ll probably get it (Fate is so so so Greedy). So when him and Harry found themselves at a date in the Warehouse District, he was kinda into it but not really. At least Harry was nice about it and brought the approved picnic basket with appropriate things like an emergency flair, wheat and wheat by product free foods and a stun gun for the creatures. Sitting on the roof of a warehouse was almost romantic, but Harry had gone off to do his nightly screaming out of fear routine and was stuck at the other end of the warehouse for at least twenty more minutes. 

Laying back and staring up at the helicopters and Void beyond that, Louis thought over everything since he came to Night Vale. Carlos was the one to find him, severely dehydrated and clutching a large bag filled to the brim with clothes and scientific equipment. Louis can barely recall the week or so he spent in the guest room of the Cecilos household, being feed soups and smoothies and eventually salads. It was nice, but sometimes Louis wished he knew how to get out of Night Vale just so he could visit his family again. He calls them on the regular and sometimes it works while other times it doesn’t (time is weird). So it was nice overall in Night Vale, just sometimes he wishes he could get back home home. He felt someone watching him and opened his eyes to find an Erika standing above him, just watching. He waved slightly and sat up, getting up off the roof to talk to Erika, who melted down into the roof and went away.

“Well that’s frustrating.” That startled Harry out of his Screaming. Shaking himself out of it, he went over to Louis and wrapped his arms around his middle.

“What’s frustrating?” Louis just pointed to where Erika disappeared. 

“Erika didn’t even talk to me, just looked at me and left. “ Harry wasn’t helpful at all. He just shrugged and pulled Louis back to where there picnic stuff was. Sighing loudly, Louis sat himself down and allowed the date to continue. 

☾

Maybe the City Council and the Lights knew that Louis and Harry weren’t really all that interested in each other so they pulled the Audience from their minds and let them finally live normally. Besides the fact that they had to stand by the Forbidden Dog Park and subtly hand out flyers for the Hooded Figures at least once a week until it was Summer Solstice. So there was that. But at least they got to hang out together even if they weren’t allowed to acknowledge each other and had to avoid Eye Contact at all times. So other than that, they became really close friends. 

Dinners at the Cecilos household were still a disaster over all. PJ has went from eating all the silverware to the plates (apparently he’s taking after Harry’s three goats. “At least they teach me to eat!” “They aren’t good role models at all! Stop listening to them!”). He also turns out to be immune to flame which is always a plus. He still wouldn’t let Louis study him which was frustrating but he moved on to studying the fact that everyday objects keep turning into hedgehogs around him. (City Council mixed with the Hooded Figures). At some point around Christmas, Harry moved in with Louis because his apartment was taken over by a creature with many tentacles. So, things were going okay for Night Vale and in Louis personal opinion, life couldn’t be any better.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this fic! Comments and kudos are always appreciated. 
> 
> [ tumblr ](stardustlouie.tumblr.com)


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